That would be First Amendment freedom. And, to listen to Dick Durbin talk about it, the senator from Illinois — you know, the one who didn’t become president five minutes after he won his seat — the First Amendment applies to real journalists, not you unwashed lot, with your grubby blogs and your cell-phone cameras and your Twitter accounts. Sen. Dick means real journalists — you know, like David Gregory. The kind who can get away with breaking the law because they’re Journalists and you’re not — which is apparently why they need shield laws and you don’t. Folks employed by big-time news organizations (although most of them aren’t as big-time as they once were). You know, the kinds of reporters and editors the Founders had in mind when they wrote the words:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Except, of course, they didn’t.

In the freewheeling media environment of the mid/late 18th century, just about anything went. True, there were newspapers aplenty, frankly partisan affairs that advocated instead of reported. But there was also the contemporary equivalent of modern bloggers — rabble-rousers like Tom Paine, the British-born troublemaker and pamphleteer who provided much of the intellectual fodder for the American Revolution in works such as Common Sense. Like bloggers today, Paine was a pain in the ass, forever complaining about how underpaid and overworked he was, and mad at the world that his genius was not better appreciated and remunerated:

Often tactless, Paine provoked considerable controversy. He was invariably hard-pressed for money and had to depend upon the generosity of his American friends and the occasional reward from the French envoy in America. When the War came to an end, his financial position was so precarious that he had to campaign to obtain recompense from the government. Congress eventually rewarded him $3.000. Pennsylvania granted him £500 in cash, while New York proved more generous and gave him a confiscated Loyalist farm at New Rochelle.

After American independence had been won, Paine played no part in the establishment of the new republic. Instead, he busied himself trying to invent a smokeless candle and devising an iron bridge.

And when that didn’t pan out, Paine hied himself off to France, where he threw himself into another revolution, in which he almost lost his head. He died, penniless, on his farm at New Rochelle.

A real Paine

Would Durbin consider Paine a journalist? Of course not; he’d consider him an enemy of the state. Here’s how the guy Rush calls Little Dick defines journalists:

Here is the bottom line – the media shield law, which I am prepared to support … still leaves an unanswered question, which I have raised many times: What is a journalist today in 2013? We know it’s someone that works for Fox or AP, but does it include a blogger? Does it include someone who is tweeting? Are these people journalists and entitled to constitutional protection?

When you hear a hack pol like Durbin bruit the issue of who’s “entitled” to constitutional protection, you know the fix is in. For today’s media happily occupies one side of the bed of the Democrat-Media Complex (in the late Andrew Breitbart’s famous formulation), a cozy racket in which each side protects and nourishes and pleasures the other. As the Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds, wrote the other day:

Sen. Dick Durbin thinks it’s time for Congress to decide who’s a real reporter. In the Chicago Sun-Times last week, he wrote: “Everyone, regardless of the mode of expression, has a constitutionally protected right to free speech. But when it comes to freedom of the press, I believe we must define a journalist and the constitutional and statutory protections those journalists should receive.”

How do you decide who is a journalist? Essentially, he says, it’s someone who gets a paycheck from a media organization: “A journalist gathers information for a media outlet that disseminates the information through a broadly defined ‘medium’ — including newspaper, nonfiction book, wire service, magazine, news Web site, television, radio or motion picture — for public use. This broad definition covers every form of legitimate journalism.”

Does it really? Every form?

The ability to publish inexpensively, and to reach potentially millions of people in seconds, has made it possible for people who’d never be able to — or even want to — be hired by the institutional press to nonetheless publish and influence the world, much like 18th century pamphleteers.

I do have to say that I am not sure how it happened, be it the canonization of Obama or the dramatic increase in web news, but never before in my lifetime have I ever been struck more by the fact that many in Congress are as dumb as dog sh*t and a downright humiliation. Durbin is just another weenie in the parade of buffoons.

Durbin is looking for a Dicky-Wiki to attach to his political "enemies"...which for an Illinois politician includes anyone who might testify as a witness truthfully under oath.

After all, the greatest record in all of Illinois politics rivals Dimaggio's 57 game hitting streak, John Wooden's compiled W-L record and Oscar Robertson's average of a triple double for a career...that being...any Illinois politician who served at least one term as governor and none in an orange jumpsuit.

But, Dicky the Pooh's wants to make a Dicky-Wicky for "journOlista"...someone who, I suppose can tamper with material evidence like NBC or ABC, can wallow in forged documents like CBS, can fabricate stories out of whole cloth and photoshop like Reuters and the AP, can be openly anti-Semetic like the BBC, or can shill for socialism like Newsweek and...well, ....all of the Agenda Media.

As an arm of the Democratic Party ambidextrous sophistry...the Agenda Media alternates its switch-hitting proclivities...hit pieces on non-leftists and puff pieces for leftist politicians and their drooling groupie fan base.

A Dicky-Wiki outlining what is a "journalist"...appears to be anyone willing to completely ignore the laughable Code of Journalistic Ethics.

Well, Dick Durbin's views are nonsensical if for no other reason, the First Amendment could NOT have been written with "real journalists" in mind, because they simply didn't exist. Prior to the telegraph and replacement of hand presses with machinery, going beyond political hack newspapering and pampleteering simply wasn't possible. It wasn't until the early 19th Century and the turn of the 20th Century that you started getting real news organizations and the notion of balanced and fair reporting.

And yes, I fully agree with Michael Walsh that the founding of things like the New York Times (the Henry Raymond version, not the socialist rag that has been a disgrace and insult to its founder from the 20th Century on) and AP/UPI was mainly a positive thing, and some journalist standards are not a bad thing. I think Breibart's contempt for everything in professional journalism has some parallel to the situation in which Thomas Jefferson and James Madison struggled against Baptist preachers being jailed because they didn't have theology degrees like the established denominations like the Church of England (which played a large part in the eventual drafting of the First Amendment). The difficulty was like Breibart, the Primative Baptists threw the baby out with the bathwater in despising ALL education, which contributed much to the social dysfunction that afflicted Appalachia for decades, and made Abraham Lincoln a skeptic in his youth and kept him from being a creedal Christian until the day he died. However, I do fully agree the ideal world is to have both citizen journalism and professional journalism present, to keep each other on their toes and honest.

What would have made the Founders absolutely livid was today's notion that the press and government would be monopolized by and for an elite class. I think it's long past time that the families of real America out there start questioning why they should attach ANY credibility, and waste their precious time and consumer dollars to outlets peopled by eliists who consider their audience the great unwashed, and have no sympathy with their concerns or convictions.

As someone from Illinois, state motto, " will the defendant please rise," Durbin has been an embarrassment since he was elected. Unfortunately, this state has such stupid voters he will stay in office as long as he wants. Can't wait to move out of this state when my daughters get out of school.

‘Little Dick Durban’ - you have to love the title.The ’not so bright’ -‘race card players’ - paint this slime as a hero - and the Democratic dregs will keep putting him back into office until enough of his supporters get education and strength of character to see him for what he is a - ‘Little Dick Durban’ !

To this day I am astonished by how far back Walter Lippmann goes. 1921! That was the height of the Progressive Era, and Lippmann was right in the middle of it.

Progressivism is an evil cult, and should be regarded as such. The fact that the term "progressive" has been revived baffles me. But I forget that most people do not know its origins or its original form. They inspired the two most monstrous political movements (Naziism and Communism) with all sorts of creepy ideas, and set America on an ultimately ruinous path.

Maybe we should take the words that our Founders used as they were written. They did not write 'journalist', nor 'reporter' or 'essayist', they said the 'press', a press is a method of creating pages of printed material at the time. So, Our Founders, gave everyone the freedom of speech and also the right to write down their speeches and distribute them to people as printed material for whatever purpose. Tom Paine was one of these Patriots..... As was Ben Franklin. Freedom of the press means exactly what it says..Durbin is just another skunk with the same scent as his brothers.

"Little Dickie" says that journalists are only those news reporters who have government approval. Doesn't exactly sound like the free country that our Founders were seeking to establish. Maybe it is time to retire tgis idiot, and many more like him, out to pasture with the rest of the nags.

Richard [Cranium] Durbin is outing himself in this fashion for one, maybe a couple of the following reasons [See how you like 'em]** He's testing the waters, seeing if this has any possibilities, or if he should drop it and hope summer re-runs squelch the memory of what he's babbling.** He really 'means it' and is looking for those, just like him. Let's see if he dares to introduce a bill or sponsors one. {Note he might be A Dick but he ain't got The Nuts for that one]** His meds are faulty, or his laces were untied, and allergies might be to blame.** His house puppeteer's hand slipped while up Dick's Derrieire and this dribbled out while the hand was repositioning.** He just cannot help himself. He thrives on the taste of vinegar & perfumed water on a Summers Eve, and that's not ever gonna' change.